During part 20 of his weekly series, The Time And What Must Be Done[1], Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam answered criticism about his deafening silence on the murder of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of iconic human rights activist and revolutionary, Malcolm X.

I was asked in a tweet whether I had offered condolences to the Malcolm Shabazz family over the loss of Malcolm Shabazz, the son of Sister Qubilah Shabazz,” Farrakhan began. “I sent word to the family through our International Representative, Brother Akbar Muhammad, who has contact with [Malcolm X daughter] Ilyasah Shabazz. He didn’t speak with her directly; but I gave him a message for the family, and he said he put it on her answering service. I hope that she received it; if not, the message is simply that we, in the Nation of Islam, send our deepest condolences and sympathies to the family.

But Farrakhan didn’t stop there. Exposing the toxic culture of the F.B.I. and its historical — and contemporary — role of terrorizing the Black community, the NOI leader suggested that the blame for young Malcolm’s death rested squarely on the organization’s shoulders.

But I want to say to Black America — that the same F.B.I. that hatched the plot to divide Brother Malcolm from his teacher [The Honorable Elijah Muhammad] and the Nation of Islam; that same F.B.I. that worked to destroy Black organizations and Black leadership — that same F.B.I. was dogging the footsteps of this young potential giant,” Farrakhan said.

As previously reported by NewsOne[4], young Malcolm alluded to his own assassination in March when sharing the harassment he and his family have consistently received from the F.B.I.

In the beginning of 2012 I had been informed that I was under investigation by the F.B.I.’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, N.Y.

…

The formula for a public assassination is: the character assassination before the physical assassination; so one has to be made killable before the eyes of the public in order for their eventual murder to then deemed justifiable. And when the time arrives for these hits to be carried out you’re not going to see a C.I.A. agent with a suit & tie, and a badge that says “C.I.A.” walk up to someone, and pull the trigger. What they will do is to out-source to local police departments in the region of their target, and to employ those that look like the target of interest to infiltrate the workings in order to set up the environment for the eventual assassination (character, physical/incarceration, exile) to take place.

In the days prior to Malcolm’s death, he posted two cryptic — and now arguably foreshadowing — Facebook update about his “powerful enemies” and “weird” messages:

Malcolm’s last Facebook status — one day prior to his death — was a picture of “The Last Supper.”

Though Farrakhan stopped short of saying that the FBI was directly involved in young Malcolm’s murder, he clearly called out the U.S. government for working to destroy his life in hopes of forever burying the legacy of Malcolm X:

We are not clear on what happened in Mexico. But you know, when the enemy wants to get rid of you, one of the best places and times to do it is when you are away from your base. May God comfort the family and us in this loss; but at the same time, we really should look at the hypocrisy of a government that would place the picture of Brother Malcolm on a stamp, as though they really ‘admire him,’ and there’s been a ‘change of heart,’ and now they ‘love the man’ that they once loved to hate.

And then at the same time as his picture is on a stamp, they worked to destroy the only remaining male member to carry on his legacy and his name.

Listen to Minister Farrakhan’s message below:

Farrakhan has always vehemently insisted that the F.B.I. was responsible for driving a wedge between the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X, but his own admitted role in his assasination can not be ignored.

Writing in the NOI newspaper Muhammad Speaks 10 weeks prior to Malcolm’s death, Farrakhan had this to say about Malcolm:

“Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm. The die is set, and Malcolm shall not escape, especially after such evil, foolish talk about his benefactor; such a man is worthy of death and would have been met with death if it had not been for Muhammad’s confidence in Allah for victory over his enemies.”

“Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with [Malcolm] like a nation deals with a traitor, what the hell business is it of yours? A nation has to be able to deal with traitors and cutthroats and turncoats.”

Malcolm’s late widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, publicly accused Farrakhan of a role in her husband’s murder, but later reconciled with him[7] after he voiced support for her daughter Qubilah, who, in 1994, stood accused of plotting to hire a hitman to kill him. Farrakhan blamed the US government in that instance as well.

In a 60 Minutes interview with the eldest Shabazz daughter, Attallah, Farrakhan said that he “loved” Malcolm. He also finally admitted to playing a role in his assassination and apologized for his “complicity”:

“I may have been complicit in words that I spoke leading up to February 21 [1965],” Farrakhan said. “I acknowledge that and regret that any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being.”

Attallah, who said she did not know “if [her] heart could take” meeting with him, would not let him shift the burden to the F.B.I.:

Struggling to keep control of her emotions, Shabazz said that while she believed the FBI had something to do with her father’s death, it was young black men who shot him.

“You can’t keep pointing fingers,” she said. “My father was not killed from a grassy knoll.”

Farrakhan said: “I wish that Malcolm X were alive today, and not dead. Yes, it is true that black men pulled the trigger. We cannot deny any responsibility in this. Where we are responsible, where our hands are a part of this, we beg God’s mercy and forgiveness.”

“I genuinely hope that perhaps a healing can come to Miss Shabazz and her family,” he continued.

Shabazz issued a statement this week.

“He’s never admitted this before publicly,” she said. “Until now, he’s never caressed my father’s children. I thank him for acknowledging his culpability and I wish him peace.”

Taking these details into consideration, perhaps the true tragic irony is that both Malcolms were vilified by communities they risked their lives to uplift, laying the groundwork for their assassinations to be shrouded in mystery and suspicion.